Lazar Deals a 1-0 Win for Wisconsin

GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers edged the Clinton LumberKings 1-0 on Friday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium behind six, shutout innings by Max Lazar and an unearned run by the offense in the top of the sixth inning. The win allowed Wisconsin to salvage the final game of the four-game series with the LumberKings.

Ethan Small, the #1 pick of the Milwaukee Brewers from the 2019 draft, made his Timber Rattlers debut on Friday night as the starting pitcher. He allowed three hits, walked one, and struck out five over three innings before leaving on his pitch count.

Small worked around a one-out single with a 6-4-3 double play in the first and another one-out single in the second.

His toughest jam was in his final inning. Marcos Rivera started the third with a double. Small bounced back to strike out the next three batters to end his night with 49 pitches.

Wisconsin (52-57 overall, 21-19 second half) had a chance to take the early lead. Jesús Lujano singled and David Fry was hit by a pitch with one out in the bottom of the first. Clinton starting pitcher Josh Roberson got out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts.

The game remained tied until the bottom of the sixth. Connor McVey drew a lead-off walk against Roberson. Lujano dropped a sacrifice bunt to move McVey to second. David Fry followed with an infield single to short, but McVey had to hold at second base. Thomas Dillard was next and he sent a hard one-hopper to Samuel Castro in the hole between first and second. Castro threw to second for the force on Fry, but the relay to first from shortstop Christopher Torres sailed into the crowd and that allowed McVey to score the run that put the Rattlers up 1-0.

That was more than enough offense for Max Lazar.

Lazar relieved Small for the top of the fourth inning and he tossed six scoreless innings, allowed one hit, walked, none and struck out eight to pick up the victory. Lazar went back out for the top of the ninth inning to face the top of the Clinton order and he struck out Torres, got Kameron Misner to fly out to center, and struck out Payton Burdick to end the game for Wisconsin's eleventh shutout of the season.

Clinton (59-50, 26-14) had their five-game winning streak snapped with the loss to the Rattlers.
The Timber Rattlers evened the season series with Clinton as both teams have seven wins in fourteen meetings in 2019. Wisconsin has four games left with Clinton this season. Those games will be at Clinton from August 24 through August 27.

The win also allowed the Rattlers to pick up a game on the LumberKings in the second half Western Division Wild Card Race. Wisconsin trails Clinton by five games with thirty games remaining in the regular season.
Wisconsin begins a four-game series with the Peoria Chiefs on Saturday night at Neuroscience Group Field. Logan Gillaspie (3-6, 3.88) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Peoria has named Colin Schmid (4-5, 4.54) as their starter. Game time is 6:35pm.
Saturday is Princess Night #2 and the Rattlers and North Shore Bank have invited Elsa, Anna, Jasmine, Rapunzel, and Snow White to the game for a celebration. There will plenty of opportunities to give our guests a royal welcome throughout the night.    Tundraland presents postgame fireworks and children twelve and under may run the bases courtesy of Meijer after the fireworks display as part of a North Shore Bank Family Night with WIXX.
If you can't make it to the ballpark, there are several ways to catch the action. If you can't make it out to the game, there are several ways to follow the action. Saturday's game will be televised on CW-14 in Northeastern Wisconsin and on My-24 in Southeastern Wisconsin starting at 6:30pm. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM and the TuneIn Radio app starting with the Papa John's Pizza Pregame Show at 6:15pm. MiLB.tv subscribers can watch the game over the internet.